Kings County Biographies This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm EDWARD ERLANGER The well known attorney and counsellor at law and breeder of trotting horses whose name heads this article was born at the University of Marburg, Germany, June 15, 1852. He came from a family of bankers. His father, Moritz Erlanger, was a banker and merchant at Marburg. Our subject was educated at Gymnasium at Marburg. When seventeen years of age he entered the employ of the banking firm of von Erlanger & Son at Frankfurt on Main and continued till 1870, when he was forced to resign his position owing to the fact that he was drafted into the military service in the French and German war. He did service in the ambulance corps, after which he sailed for New York, where he arrived in October, 1870. He came to California in 1871 and in 1872 located at Kingston, where he was employed as bookkeeper in the store of Jacob and Einstein until the spring of 1877. It was while thus employed in the year 1874 that he and thirty-seven other white men were held up, bound and robbed by that historic California bandit Tiburcio Vasquez and his band of thirteen outlaws. They were plundered to the extent of $4,000.00 and Vasquez and his men made their escape, but were later, in 1874, apprehended and arrested by officials from Los Angeles county and were hung in 1875. Upon the completion of the railroad to Hanford and Lemoore he came to the new town of Lemoore, where for two years he was a bookkeeper for J. J. Mack & Company, general merchants. Meanwhile he built the hotel and Masonic and Odd Fellows' hall building, and he established a general notion store in the building, which he was conducting when it was burned. He resumed business in Erlanger Hall, in which a store was operated in front and a dance hall in the rear, but sold out in 1884 and took up the study of law in the office of Judge Jacobs, with which he was connected until 1893, when the latter was elected judge of the Superior Court and moved to Hanford, since when Mr. Erlanger has conducted a general law, notary, real estate, and insurance office. For a time he handled real estate in association with Otto Brandt. Always a lover of horses he engaged in ranching and stock-raising, giving particular attention to trotters. His real estate interests broadened into the buying, improving and selling large tracts of land. His health failed, however, and in 1893-95 he lost most of his holdings. It will be remembered that that was a period of financial depression. But he kept to his horses, was made a notary public and had a fairly good law practice, and for two years was deputy assessor under G. W. Follette. In 1895 he branched out as a farmer and stock-raiser and bought considerable property in and around Lemoore. As an outcome of his enterprise he raised Toggles, trotting gelding, which for three years was the fastest horse in its class, taking all records in the state. In 1898 at Los Angeles he trotted the three fastest heats ever trotted in the West. Toggles was sold in 1898 to Mr. Babcock, owner of the Coronado Beach Hotel, and in 1899 won all stakes in the state, and in 1900 was taken East and there won three $10,000 stakes and the championship of his class, and $25,000 was refused for him that year. He took also the premium at a horse show as the most perfect trotter as a show horse in the state. It is interesting in this connection to note that Mr. Erlanger sold this valuable animal for $2500. In 1901 Toggles was retired from the track by his owner. Mr. Erlanger has his dam and two full brothers of him. He has always bred standard-bred horses. In 1891 he started by buying twenty-six standard-bred brood mares, which were the foundation of his successes. He calls his brood establishment the Royal Rose Breeding Farm. The sire Royal Rose was a finely bred trotting animal. Mr. Erlanger has at present a large number of horses for breeding and is developing Lightening Bug, a full brother of Toggles, which made 2 :22 in 1911. He is now devoting himself principally to his legal and real estate work. In 1906 he was elected justice of the peace for four years and is also filling the office of city recorder. He has subdivided and sold off several tracts of land and was the builder of the first Masonic and Odd Fellows' hall in Lemoore. Politically he affiliates with the Republican party and as a member of the County Central committee and otherwise he has been a leader in its local work. Personally Mr. Erlanger has a generous heart, a loving and cheerful disposition, and makes and holds many friends. He rounds himself with many pets, horses, dogs and birds. One of his best pets is a native California bald eagle named "Old Abe," a bird which has won national distinction. In the year 1906 an agent of the United States Government from the Smithsonian Institute at Washington came to Lemoore, looking up data pertaining to the Indians of this region and other things of interest. He soon discovered in "Old Abe" a perfect type of the bald eagle, and had his photograph taken, and this photograph it is believed is the original for the eagle engraved on the new five and ten dollar gold coins. History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913 pp. 726-728 Transcribed by Kathy Sedler EDWARD ERLANGER There representative real-estate man of Lemoore, is a native of Germany, born at Marburg in 1852. His father and ancestors were all engaged in the banking business. His cousin, Emil de Erlanger, made the confederate loan, and married the daughter of Slidel, of confederate fame. The Southern railroad system is owned by a syndicate of Erlangers. Edward Erlanger was educated at Marburg University, a very prominent college of instruction, and at the age of sixteen years, he entered the Vereins bank at Frankfort-on-the-Main, and remained until 1870, when he came to the United States. Then traveling by easy stages through the south, visiting Old and New Mexico, he arrived in San Francisco in February, 1871. Through letters of credit he then visited the leading banking houses, with a view of studying the American banking system, to apply in his own country on his return. In February, 1872, he went to the Sandwich Islands, on his return trip around the world, but was taken sick at Honolulu, and then came back to San Francisco, where he lay in the German Hospital for many months, and when convalescing sought the warm climate of the San Joaquin valley, and at Visalia met Mr. Einstein, of Einstein & Jacobs, and was employed by them as book-keeper at their store at Kingston, then a prominent trading point in the valley. At a certain age all the young men of Germany are obliged to enter the army, an upon recovery of health Mr. Erlanger discovered that it was too late for him to return, as he would be considered a deserter. He then took action toward becoming an American citizen, to secure the protection of the American flag, and also to be enabled to return home at will. In December, 1873, Kingston was raided by that noted bandit and robber, Vasquez, and thirty-two men were tied down, subject among the number, while they committed their depredations. Mr. Erlanger remained in Kingston until 1877, when the town of Lemoore was organized. He attended the auction sale in the spring and purchased property and in the fall came to reside, as book-keeper for J. J. Mack & Co., general merchandise. Mr. Erlanger built the Park Hotel and in 1878, he opened a general merchandise store in his own behalf, and the same year built the Masonic hall, all of which were destroyed in the fire of 1882, except his stock which had been moved to another locality. He lost, however, a valuable scientific library with a collection of curiosities which he had gathered in his travels. He retired from mercantile life in 1885 with the intention of returning to Germany, but land interests had so increased, with his stock interests of thoroughbred and standard bred horses, that he postponed the trip and entered the real-estate business with Dr. Brandt, a prominent landholder of the locality. In 1889, Mr. Erlanger again engaged in the mercantile business which he still continues. He is a genial, affable gentleman and deeply interested in the advanced improvement of the town of Lemoore. Memorial and Biographical History of the counties of Fresno, Tulare and Kern, California Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company, 1892 p. 778 Transcribed by Kathy Sedler